I enjoyed this episode as well. I haven't seen any of the TAR Asia seasons so the fact they are repeating tasks from those seasons doesn't bother me. There was a lot of action throughout once they got to Hue. Nathan & Tyler ran another strong leg although I'm not much of a fan. Liked the strong finish for Matt & Tom. Chris & Anastacia got over their bickering for a fine finish, but they sure couldn't find Grant at the pitstop. Big props to Jeff & Luke to power thru the detour and finishing with a 4th place finish. Sam & Renae came back from a slow run at the car tasks. Sam & Kelly did a good job of working together and not helping Joey. Thought Mo & Mos ran a good leg to get past their 30 minute penalty. Happy to see AnneMarie & Tracy finish the leg strong. They are so much fun to watch and they look like they are really enjoying themselves. I hope that Alana & Mel start moving up. I think they could be a fun team to watch. Loved the fact that no one wanted to play with Joey at the roadblock except Mel and wish she hadn't. Also Joey focused her way right on her arse when she started the roadblock. Too bad she didn't focus herself right out of the race. Ryot & Liberty can now join the long list of Amazing Race teams worldwide eliminated first.

I watched episode 2 yesterday on Youtube and I enjoyed it very much... as they were racing in my country, Vietnam I live in Ho Chi Minh City, too bad they were only there for about an hour or so... Some tasks still repeating from TAR:A3 but I still enjoyed it because there are different contestants, dramatic teams and more stories!!I'm glad Nathan & Tyler, Matt & Tom were 1st and 2nd... Too bad Ryot & Liberty was eliminated, they were one of my favorite teams Though, I still disappointed of Grant Bowler, he haven't changed at all since episode 1.... He didn't very "congratulate" much for the teams, and I didn't see any sympathy from him at all to Ryot & Liberty, unlike Phil Keoghan. maybe they didn't show that scenes, or he didn't get used to the job as a host much... Looking forward to the next episode in Hong Kong!!

Logged

You did very well, Jet & Cord... You still smiled and showed respect to each other as a team, even when you were eliminated...So... now go Gary & Mallory!! Win for the cowboys!!

"They gave me the answer and tell me when I opened the thing give 'em two minutes. We looked at the top, they were in the car. It was two minutes. I can't help it we had a fast cabbie. (Drops lower) Baby you know at the end of the day we need to win."

Gotta love our talent for making run on sentences.

Coutzy,I did not get the beginning well, but the end is clear and slightly different what what you have indicated. I have Joey whispering:

I share much of your favorite team conclusions. I happen to like Dave/Kelly the best because Dave is a straight shooter from the Howard Cosell of Journalism. I did not expect to like 2 overweight older women, but they are indeed delightful and I hope they can stay in the race for a while. Sam and Renae are very competent and down-to-earth, not typical spacey models at all. I like them a lot.

It's not hard to figure out who to not like. Richard/Joey and Chris (but not Anastasia) top that list.

On balance, I think Amazing Race Australia has done an amazing job of casting this race, with multiple positive teams and multiple villains.

Ah. I just watched it. I loved the pit stop drama. It seemed like the teams were really close.

Tracy & Anne-Marie are an absolute joy to watch. They seem so genuinely happy to just be racing. I'm also liking Dave & Kelly. I don't really know why. I also like Tom & Matt and Sam & Renae.

Richard & Joey are so annoying. I don't know why Mel gave the answer to Joey... Maybe Joey could've been eliminated if she didn't. Speaking of eliminated, I feel really bad for Ryot and Liberty. They were a strong team.

Grant Bowler was boring, like last episode. Somebody needs to teach him to be more exciting.

Overall, pretty good episode. There was great character development. However, I thought the episode felt a bit long.

Unfortunate for Alana and Mel, they helped another team and it cost them their spot. At this point I'm sure Richard and Joey have lost their credibility in the eyes of most of the racers and I'm willing to bet Alana and Mel won't hesitate to tell the other teams what happened to them either.

There are only two teams that I don't like in the race so far and that's Richard and Joey and Anastasia and Chris (mostly Chris though).

I'm finding Matt and Tom's situation kind of funny, it reminds me of Crocodile Dundee in New York where they aren't fully aware of how things work but they're working on it as they go with a pretty positive attitude. I don't think they compare to the US cowboy's because their situations are pretty different.

I think Grant Bowler is doing a pretty good job, it's hard to live up to the bar set by Phil Keoghan in what's arguably the most popular version of the show. With time I think he will find his own groove.

Not quite. Carabao was done by 5 teams: Jeff/Luke, Chris/Anastasia, Ryot/Liberty, Alana/Mel and AnneMarie/Tracy before the last 3 switched to Carry Fowl as you indicated in a separate post.

By everyone else, I meant those who had completed the task so far. I know it wasn't very clear and probably didn't seem that way but if you look at the post below it, it states what detour the remaining teams chose

After watching 2 episodes of TARAus, I am in awe, and at the same time worried about the current state of normal TAR.

After watching this Australia series, there are two words I currently find missing in TAR USA (which used to be apparent in earlier seasons) The words are

EPICJOURNEY

and it is sorely lacking in later seasons of TAR compared to TARAus. It used to be fantastic vistas, awesome camera-work to see the locations, and it felt breathtaking to watch. TARAus is seriously a breath of fresh air and I now remember why I fell in love with this amazing series.

This is what it's supposed to be like, drama, tension, and gorgeous camera-work. The feeling of "the world is your oyster, you can go anywhere and experience amazing things".

Where has that feeling gone in the original series? Mundane camera-work, mundane tasks, not much of an epic journey anymore. It feels like "okay, let's get this over with"

This is my genuine opinion, and maybe I'm the only one who feels it, but if the original producers of TAR doesn't watch out, TARAus may become more popular than them. Sure, Grant could use some more enthusiasm, and I actually would have wanted Phil to host this version, but the epic feeling is back for me here.

This is what The Amazing Race is all about, tension, villains and drama combined with stunning vistas and location. Please bring it back to TAR US as well and don't skip the airport drama that you don't have anymore.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

I agree, and is it just me or each episode is about 1 and a half hours long.. so we get to see so much of each team!

I'm especially shocked Ann-Marie and Tracy as a backpacking team managed to get such a huge edit and it's always FUN to see them struggling but laughing their asses off at the same time. It is extremely light-hearted and fun to watch and impressive at the same time that this can happen to a team on such a competitive race. Their performance at the 2nd Leg RB is first class and I bet if they went for the right Detour, they COULD be in maybe even the Top 3, seriously. Or 4th place.

I love the views, the angles shot, the teams rivalry (lacking in TAR 17, 18.. teams against the Cowboys = Juvenile because the Cowboys didn't even care, while TAR 16 HAD FAR TOO MUCH ANIMOSITY it was so hard to watch. Nothing on TAR 15 as well.. hence the last regular season which was really fun to watch remained as TAR 14 with teams rivalry) and I like the TASKS the most! They made sure the tasks wasn't lame and there for the sake of being there!

Yes, these are definitely 90 minute telecasts for each segment, presumably to continue for all of ARAus. I agree that this is an important reason that this nascent season is more exciting than regular Amazing Race or Amazing Race Australia seasons. In order to fill what equates to 21 more minutes of edited screen time, there must be more detail shown and more action.

NOTE by Poster - as you can see below Episode 3 is back to an above- but almost-normal length at 48 minutes (without commercials), which is the equivalent of 68 minutes with them. Boo! Hiss!

Yes, these are definitely 90 minute telecasts for each segment, presumably to continue for all of ARAus. I agree that this is an important reason that this nascent season is more exciting than regular Amazing Race or Amazing Race Australia seasons. In order to fill what equates to 21 more minutes of edited screen time, there must be more detail shown and more action.

Episodes are back to the normal 60 minute format (although it ran from 8:36-10:41 last night - so episodes will probably be just under 45 mins)

Leg 2 – Two tickets to the 2011 AFL Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and a VIP tour of the National Sports Museum

Leg 1 – A$10,000 from National Australia Bank and The Express Pass – an item that can be used on the race to skip any one task of the team's choosing.Leg 2 – Two tickets to the 2011 AFL Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and a VIP tour of the National Sports Museum.Leg 3 – A$10,000 from National Australia Bank.Leg 4 – A$5,000 shopping spree at Kathmandu.Leg 5 – A$5,000 home entertainment system from Bing Lee.Leg 6 – A$5,000 shopping spree at Kathmandu.Leg 7 – A$10,000 from National Australia Bank.Leg 8 – A$5,000 personal computer package from Bing Lee.

Poor Tyler and Nathan. They won the most WTF Prize given out so far. They won 3 legs but only 10k in actual fact.

Richard and Joey, Jeff and Luke and Sam and Ranae won 1 leg and got their 10k already. Sucks right?

On the contrary Joab, I think the tickets to the AFL grand final are the best prize there. I've done the normal tour of the National Sports Museum (Also at the MCG) and it is fantastic for sports fans (Which I would be surprised if Nathan and Tyler aren't)

Plus, the AFL grand final is the biggest sporting event in Australia, period. There are those that will argue the NRL grand final is bigger but they simply do not get the viewership numbers the AFL does. While the tickets themselves, if bought at retail are only worth a few hundred dollars, it is not uncommon for people to sell "Grand Final entertainment packages" to run up into the thousands of dollars despite only including tickets and one other very small item. (This is done because it is illegal to onsell tickets for more than face value, however you can create a loophole by tacking an "entertainment pack" or "luncheon" onto the deal.)

I think if i'm a AFL fan, i'll be THRILLED like mad to have those tickets. But honestly if you ask Nathan and Tyler, I think they'll rather have the value rather than tickets (if they're not fans) I think their mindset will probably be like we can just get those tickets and buy it for a few hundred bucks.. and this is what we won.

Unless the VIP tour of the National Sports Museum comes with like 10 course seafood meal + wine + hotel room for the night or what.. I really think the prize is no big deal. I know AFL is a big thing for Australia but you know for us who's watching from a foreigner POV, that prize was lame.

The best prize would of course be a NAB 10k cash prize, which Nathan and Tyler has no luck with.